USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding Weekly News Roundup, July 28 - August 3, 2011 Table of Contents Ex-CIA Official Sounds Alarm about Hackers' Next Targets (CNN, 8/3/11) Report on 'Operation Shady RAT' Identifies Widespread Cyber-spying (Washington Post, 8/2/11) Water Shortages Threaten Renewed Conflict between Pakistan, India (AlertNet, 8/2/11) Telecomix Take on Syrian Surveillance (Marketplace, 8/1/11) Technology Not Bombs (Huffington Post, 7/28/11) U.S. Government says Stuxnet Could Morph into New Threat (Reuters, 7/28/11) Congo Asks U.S. to Use OECD Guidance for Conflict-Mineral Rules (Businessweek, 7/28/11) China vs. U.S.: The Cyber Cold War is Raging (CNN, 7/28/11) **Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup, which includes a special section on Internet and social media.** Ex-CIA Official Sounds Alarm about Hackers' Next Targets The former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center raised concerns Wednesday about an impending "code war" in which hackers will tamper not just with the Internet but with technology that runs real-world infrastructure. Somewhat fittingly, Cofer Black's keynote talk at the Black Hat hacker conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas was interrupted by a literal alarm: flashing lights, sirens and the whole bit. See the full article (CNN, John D. Sutter, 8/3/11) [Return to top] Report on 'Operation Shady RAT' Identifies Widespread Cyber-spying A leading computer security firm has used logs produced by a single server to trace the hacking of more than 70 corporations and government organizations over many months, and experts familiar with the analysis say the snooping probably originated in China. Among the targets were the Hong Kong and New York offices of the Associated Press, where unsuspecting reporters working on China issues clicked on infected links in e-mail, the experts said. See the full article (Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima, 8/2/11) [Return to top] Water Shortages Threaten Renewed Conflict between Pakistan, India As population growth and climate change increase competition for water around the world, India and Pakistan may find water a growing source of conflict, analysts say. The two South Asian countries have a long history of tensions over issues as diverse as terrorist attacks and rights to Kashmir. Diplomatic initiatives have helped reduced these tensions in recent years. See the full article (AlertNet, Shahid Husainw, 8/2/11) [Return to top] Telecomix Take on Syrian Surveillance Telecomix is a loosely organized group of technophiles. They call themselves internauts -- like astronauts -- but instead of exploring space, they're Internet adventurers. For the past several months, Telecomix has been building ad-hoc communications systems all over the Middle East. Telecomix is a group kind of like the hacker collective Anonymous, but its members don't crash or deface websites -- they use their tech savvy to help others. See the full article (Marketplace, Steve Henn, 8/1/11) [Return to top] Technology Not Bombs When you hear the word "Israel" what do you think? Whatever your views, political, social, or religious, you're likely to have an opinion. But are you thinking technology and innovation? The point of this article is not to change the way you think about the peace process or broader political issues, but rather seeks to provide an alternative spotlight on Israel, one that accentuates technology, not bombs. See the full article (Huffington Post, Daniel Seal, 7/28/11) [Return to top] U.S. Government says Stuxnet Could Morph into New Threat U.S. government cyber security experts are warning that the Stuxnet virus could become more menacing, more than a year after it surfaced in an attack believed to be targeted against Iran's nuclear program. The Department of Homeland Security has spent the past year studying the sophisticated malicious software, the first of its type designed to attack computer systems that control industrial processes, two officials said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing. See the full article (Reuters, Jim Finkle, 7/28/11) [Return to top] Congo Asks U.S. to Use OECD Guidance for Conflict-Mineral Rules Democratic Republic of Congo appealed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to prevent forthcoming conflict-mineral rules from causing a "de-facto embargo" on trade from the Central African nation. The SEC, which is writing regulations for companies dealing in minerals from war-torn eastern Congo, should follow due- diligence guidance developed by the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu wrote in a July 15 letter published on the commission's website. See the full article (Businessweek, Michael J. Kavanagh, 7/28/11) [Return to top] China vs. U.S.: The Cyber Cold War is Raging On April 8, 2010, traffic to about 15% of the world's websites was rerouted to China. It isn't publicly known what happened to that traffic when it passed through China. But a report filed late last year by Congress' U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the hijacked traffic could easily have been captured, censored, or even replaced with other data without anyone's knowledge. See the full article (CNN, David Goldman, 7/28/11) [Return to top] Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup, which includes a special section on Internet and social media. Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend

Click here to unsubscribe

 

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding Weekly News Roundup, July 28 - August 3, 2011 Media and Journalism Under Fire in Drug war, Mexico's Media Falls Silent (Reuters, 8/3/11) BBC Journalist Arrested in Egypt is Released (Guardian, 8/2/11) Ukrainian Journalist's Apartment Set On Fire (RFE/RL, 8/2/11) Al Jazeera English Launches in New York City (Huffington Post, 8/1/11) Sri Lankan Journalist Attacked 'With Iron Bars' (AFP, 7/30/11) Internet and Social Media China's Ruling Party Urges Cadres to Become Better Microbloggers (VOA, 8/3/11) The Pentagon Enters the Social Web With a Call for Memetrackers (Atlantic, 8/2/11) Mapping Violence Against Journalists in Afghanistan (Columbia Journalism Review, 8/1/11) Man Jailed for Calling for Jihadist Attacks on British Lawmakers who Voted for Iraq War (AP, 7/29/11) In Baring Facts of Train Crash, Blogs Erode China Censorship (New, York Times, 7/28/11) What's New from PeaceMedia A Citizen-Centric Internet - Rebecca MacKinnon **Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.** Media and Journalism Under Fire in Drug war, Mexico's Media Falls Silent For the last two years, northeastern Mexico's Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states have been ravaged by bloody battles between rival drug gangs and horrific massacres of migrants. But don't expect to read much about it in the local media. Reporters in large swathes of the country now censor their own coverage, fearful of reprisals by ruthless drug gangs and corrupt police on their payroll. See the full article (Reuters, Anahi Rama, 8/3/11) [Return to top] BBC Journalist Arrested in Egypt is Released A BBC journalist arrested by Egyptian police in Cairo has been released, the corporation said on Tuesday. Shaimaa Khalil was detained on Monday after soldiers and riot police cleared a three-week sit-in in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital. Kevin Bakhurst, controller of the BBC News channel and deputy head of the BBC newsroom, said on Twitter: "BBC - A BBC producer who was arrested by Egyptian police in Cairo has been released. Shaimaa Khalil was arrested in Tahrir Square on Monday." See the full article (Guardian, John Plunkett, 8/2/11) [Return to top] Ukrainian Journalist's Apartment Set On Fire Ukrainian and international NGOs are calling on officials to accelerate an investigation into an arson attack on the apartment of an investigative journalist. Oleksiy Matsuka, 28, is chief editor of the Donetsk regional website News of Donbass. Someone barricaded his apartment door with bags of cement on July 31 and set fire to it. See the full article (RFE/RL, 8/2/11) [Return to top] Al Jazeera English Launches in New York City Six months after New York City news junkies flocked to Al Jazeera English's website for up-to-the-second coverage of the Egyptian uprising, they'll now have a chance to watch the 24-hour news network on its original platform: television. At midnight, Al Jazeera English launched in New York City on Time Warner Cable, a major step in the network's goal of expanding further into the U.S. cable market and a chance to reach two million households in a world capital of culture and commerce. See the full article (Huffington Post, Michael Calderone, 8/1/11) [Return to top] Sri Lankan Journalist Attacked 'With Iron Bars' An ethnic Tamil journalist in Sri Lanka's formerly embattled north was brutally attacked with iron bars, police said on Saturday, the latest in a string of assaults on the nation's media. Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, news editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan, was attacked by a gang of men wielding iron bars on Friday near his home in the area formerly held by separatist Tamil rebels, police said. See the full article (AFP, Mel Gunasekeraw, 7/30/11) [Return to top]   Internet and Social Media China's Ruling Party Urges Cadres to Become Better Microbloggers China's ruling Communist Party is urging its officials to become more proficient at microblogging. An article in its flagship newspaper, People's Daily, says the ability to perform in cyberspace reflects a cadre's all-around capability. The article, titled "How to speak in a microblog era," says officials must give up speaking in bureaucratic cliches. It says information should be shared in an equal way, and officials should always tell the truth. See the full article (VOA, 8/3/11) [Return to top] The Pentagon Enters the Social Web With a Call for Memetrackers The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the DoD progenitors of revolutionary tech like passive radar and the Internet, is calling for research applications of social media to strategic communication. According to an agency announcement (PDF), DARPA is looking to shell out $42 million in funding for "innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems." See the full article (Atlantic, Jared Keller, 8/2/11) [Return to top] Mapping Violence Against Journalists in Afghanistan Last week, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a 25-year old stringer for the BBC, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan. Khpulwak's death, as the many that came before it, is a tragedy and a reminder of the violence and danger journalists covering Afghanistan routinely face. There have been 266 reported incidents of violence against journalists covering the country. See the full article (Columbia Journalism Review, Erika Fry, 8/1/11) [Return to top] Man Jailed for Calling for Jihadist Attacks on British Lawmakers who Voted for Iraq War A man who posted messages on an Islamic extremist website calling on Muslims to attack British lawmakers has been jailed for 12 years. Bilal Zaheer Ahmad posted the threat against U.K. lawmakers who voted for the Iraq war on the U.S.-based RevolutionMuslim.com on Nov. 3 last year. See the full article (AP, 7/29/11) [Return to top] In Baring Facts of Train Crash, Blogs Erode China Censorship "After all the wind and storm, what's going on with the high-speed train?" read the prophetic message posted last Saturday evening on the Chinese microblog Sina Weibo. "It's crawling slower than a snail. I hope nothing happens to it." They were a few short sentences, typed by a young girl with the online handle Smm Miao. But five days later, the torrent that followed them was still flooding this nation's Internet, and lapping at the feet of government bureaucrats, censors and the state-controlled press. See the full article (New York Times, Michael Wines and Sharon LaFraniere, 7/28/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article [Return to top]   What's New from PeaceMedia A Citizen-Centric Internet - Rebecca MacKinnon Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon, says citizens must hold corporations accountable in order for the internet to evolve in a "citizen-centric" manner. In a TED talk on July 12, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland she describes how the internet has become a primary communication channel between citizens and governments, but warns that there is a corporate layer of "internet sovereigns" between the two. Visit PeaceMedia [Return to top] Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup. Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend

Click here to unsubscribe